MIA Facts Site

SPECTRE 17:
The Myth
and
The Fact

Summary. On 21 December 1972, an AC-130/SPECTRE
gunship, callsign SPECTRE 17, was shot down over Laos. Of the 16 people on board,
two survived when they were blown from/jumped out of the rear of the aircraft. All
others died in the explosion and crash. A myth has built up about this loss,
claiming that several of the men on the bird survived, were captured, and were never
released at the end of the war. This article addresses the myth and presents the
facts.

The AC-130 Gunship

The best way to learn about the AC-130 gunship is to read Frank Vaughan's
unofficial AC-130 gunship site. Visit this URL -- please return when you have
finished learning about this fine weapons system.

The SPECTRE 17 Myth

Now that you are an expert on the AC-130 SPECTRE gunship, read this
article. It looks good and sounds even better. It's quite convincing --
there's just one problem -- it's largely horseshit. This is the website of one
Jennifer Martinez, a proud member of the MIA "activist" cult. On this
website you will find a few facts about the loss of SPECTRE 17 and a lot of foolishness.
Read the site and return here:

UPDATE ( 15 November 2005). I just visited Jennifer
Martinez's site -- she has changed her URL -- if you click on the link above you
will be directed to the new site. Meanwhile, this is a link to her site.
http://www.jenmartinez.com/mt/
Check it out -- this woman is a nutcase -- read her diary and messages "Jennifer
sends" along the left side of the pages -- and this is the type of loon who is
typical of the MIA "activists".

The SPECTRE 17 Facts

The short version

The short version of the facts about SPECTRE 17 is simple: The
aircraft was hit by 37-mm anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) fire. The 37mm round
explodes on impact and the rounds that hit SPECTRE 17 ruptured a fuel tank or fuel
lines, as well as cutting intercom, hydraulic, and liquid oxygen lines. Aviation
fuel and hydraulic fluid were spilling into the cargo compartment. Liquid oxygen
remains liquid only under pressure so with a ruptured LOX line, nearly pure oxygen gas was
spewing into the cargo compartment -- aviation fuel, hydraulic fluid, and almost
pure oxygen make a powerfully explosive mixture needing only a spark to set if off.

At the rear of the AC-130 is a large ramp that lowers to allow vehicles to
drive into the aircraft and to facilitate the loading of cargo and people. The ramp
is split into two parts -- the top moves up and the bottom lowers to provide a ramp for
driving into the cargo compartment. At the time SPECTRE 17 was hit,
the bottom ramp door was up and the top door open. Three crewmembers were sitting on
the edge of the ramp with their legs hanging off into the slip stream. Several other
crew members were at the base of the ramp when the plane exploded. Two crewmembers
-- Williams and Stevens -- pushed themselves off/were blown off the edge as the plane lost
its left wing and went into an immediate left spiraling dive. With the ramp door up
and the plane spiraling nose down, it would have been an impossible climb up the ramp and
out -- all the other crewmembers were thrown forward into the exploding aircraft.

Williams and Steven both nearly landed in the burning
wreckage. Upon hitting the ground, these two men activated their strobe lights and
beepers and both put out calls on their survival radios. Another gunship, SPECTRE
07, along with several other aircraft, converged on the site. Williams and Stevens
were rescued.

In 1985, the crash site was excavated and human remains --
including dental remains -- and crew-related equipment were found buried in the wreckage.
From the analysis of the remains and material recovered from the wreckage, all the
missing men were identified, none of them got out of the aircraft. Some of the
families challenged the identification and sued. The local court ruled in favor of
the families on procedural, not scientific, grounds. On appeal, the lower court was
overrruled and the identification stands.

Pieces of the myth

Now, let's deal with bits and pieces of the myth -- the myth is what you
read on Jennifer Martinez's website.

The audio tape -- what it really says

The crew of SPECTRE 07 had a tape recorder connected to the intercom
system of their aircraft and they made an audio tape of their activities and observations
as they flew to the site of the SPECTRE 17 crash and attempted to locate survivors.
I have a copy of that audio tape; it is the same audio tape that is misrepresented on
Martinez's site. Here are some of the details on the tape that are misrepresented.

MYTH: "There were strobes everywhere."

FACT:

Each crewmember carries a small strobe light. When turned on, it
emits a very bright flash of light every few seconds. The strobe has two modes -- visible,
in which it emits a white light, and IR, in which it emits an
infrared light that is invisible to the eye but visible on infrared sensors -- which all
the AC-130s had. When crewmembers hit the ground, they would activate their strobe
so rescue aircraft overhead could see them. On the audio tape, the crew of SPECTRE
07 can be heard identifying what they believe to be several strobes.

At several points, after the crew of SPECTRE 07 has established radio
contact with the two men on the ground, they tell everyone on the ground to turn off their
strobes -- at which point two of the lights on the ground go off. The crew of
SPECTRE 07 investigates a little more and realizes that what they think are other strobes
are actually flashes of light from 20-mm ammunition from SPECTRE 17 cooking off and
exploding.

At one point, after the crew of SPECTRE 07 has established radio contact
with the two men on the ground, they tell everyone on the ground to turn off their visible
strobes and activate the IR mode. When this happens, the SPECTRE 07 crew observed
TWO IR strobes.

Crews on other aircraft, including the rescue helicopter that picked up
Stevens and Williams, concurred that the "other strobes" were nothing more than
small fires on the ground and ammunition from SPECTRE 17 cooking off.

MYTH: "There were beepers everywhere."

FACT:

Each crewmember carries a "beeper." This is a small
radio transmitter that transmits a beeping signal when activated. The beepers are on
a fixed frequency and all aircraft carry a receiver that monitors this emergency
frequency. Aircraft can home in on the beeper and locate downed crewmen.
When crewmembers hit the ground, they would activate their beepers so
rescue aircraft overhead could hear and locate them.

On the audio tape, the crew of SPECTRE 07 can be heard identifying two
-- TWO -- beepers.

Almost immediately, the crew of SPECTER 07 established radio contact
with Williams and Stevens. SPECTRE 07 tells the two men on the ground to turn off
their beepers so they ( 07 ) can listen for other beepers. When the two beepers are
turned off, no other beepers are heard.

MYTH: "The 'jump bell' from SPECTRE 17 can be heard on
the tape."

FACT:

The AC-130 is a modified C-130 -- the backbone aircraft of the Air
Force's tactical cargo airlift fleet. Every Army paratrooper who ever jumped out of
an airplane has jumped from a C-130. Above the jump door -- the side door -- of the
C-130 are two lights -- red and green. There is also a small horn. When the
time comes to jump from the aircraft, the green light comes on, the horn gives a short
burst, and the airborne guys step out the door. The AC-130 had a big bell -- sort of
like the old metal school bell -- mounted on one of the bulkheads, used as an alarm
signal.

Ms. Martinez claims that the "jump bell" from SPECTRE 17 can
be heard on the audio tape. Her implication is that the bell is the order to jump,
everyone jumped, Williams and Stevens were rescued, and other crewmembers were captured.
Horseshit. I am supposed to believe that an aircraft has been hit by
exploding 37-mm AAA rounds; fuel and hydraulic fluid are spilling into in the cargo
compartment (one of the rescued crewmen said "sloshing around the cargo
compartment"); a ruptured LOX line is adding nearly pure oxygen gas to the mixture;
the whole thing explodes into a ball of fire; and the crew is sitting around waiting for
someone to ring a bell so they can jump??? Right.

In the first place, the "jump bell" is heard on the tape AFTER
-- that's AFTER -- SPECTRE 17 is nothing but burning wreckage spread all over the ground.

In the second place, the "jump bell" referred to on the tape
is, in fact, a loud "whooping" alarm from Williams's and Stevens's survival
radios. The survival radio has a function whereby, when the guy using it pushes his
push-to-talk button, the radio gives a "whoop" -- to get the attention of anyone
overhead.

MYTH: "Everyone was ready to jump."

FACT:

On the Martinez site is a statement from one of the survivors in which
he says words to the effect that "Everyone was ready to jump."

This statement forms the basis for Martinez's claim that everyone bailed
out of the aircraft. Hardly. What Ms. Martinez neglects to include is the
follow-up debriefing and statements by the two survivors in which they state without
equivocation that they were the only two people who got out of the aircraft.

MYTH: "Stevens and Williams evaded capture."

FACT:

There was no enemy activity around. Stevens and Willimas were
picked up by rescue helicopters without encountering any enemy forces.

MYTH: ". . the crash site was visited by either
friendly indigenous forces and/or a US Search and Rescue (SAR) team who found and
photographed 2 piles of bloody bandages and 5 deployed parachutes."

FACT:

Nothingof the sort happened. A small unit
of indigenous forces made their way to the crash site the morning after the crash.
When they arrived, they encountered a small PAVN unit and a firefight broke out. The
indigenous unit reported no signs survivors. The "bloody bandages"
appeared to be PAVN bandages from one or more PAVN wounded during the firefight.

The indigenous troops did not report any deployed parachutes.

How can I be so certain? In the DIA POW-MIA Office -- and now in
the Defense POW-Missing Personnel Office -- is a former Royal Laotian Army general
officer, General Soutchay. Soutchay worked for me for several years and we had many
long conversations. It was Soutchay's troops who went to the crash site. He
was quite clear as to what they found at the site.

MYTH: The "evader symbol."

FACT:

Ms. Martinez's site includes a photograph -- taken by a reconnaissance
drone -- of some letters stamped out in the grass in Laos. She claims that this
symbol was put there by USAF Captain Thomas Hart, a crewmember on SPECTRE 17. Read this article for the facts about this symbol.

MYTH: "Lies by the Air Force."

FACT:

Finally, Ms. Martinez's site contains an image of a written statement
made by one Doug Wandoff, a crewmember off SPECTRE 07.
Also included here is a claim by Wandoff that he was forced by the USAF to sign a
false statement.

Wandoff's claims are nonsense. EVERY OTHER CREWMEMBER OF
SPECTRE 07 reported essentially what Wandoff said in his statement. His
statement was made the day after this incident -- when it was fresh in his mind. Not
one other crewmember of SPECTRE 07 has recanted his statement and not one has claimed that
he was pressured into signing a statement.

SPECTRE 07 was in radio communications with SPECTRE 17 when 17 was shot
down. SPECTRE 07 had a normal crew of 12 - 14 people EVERYONE OF THEM
MADE A STATEMENT THE NEXT DAY AND EVERY CREWMEMBER FROM SPECTRE 07 SIGNED HIS STATEMENT..
Ms. Martinez's site contains only the statements of Wandoff (from SPECTRE 07) and
Williams (survivor from 17). This fact raises the following QUESTIONS:
(1)Why does Ms. Martinez not publish
the statements by the other SPECTRE 07 crewmembers and their present-day comments -- why
does she persist in featuring ONLY Wandoff's claims? After all, she published statements
by two crewmembers, she must have the rest of the statements -- why not post the whole
story?(2)Why does
Wandoff claim the USAF made him sign a false statement? Well, the answer to these
questions is known only to Wandoff and Martinez -- but -- here are some facts that may
provide a hint as to the answer:

Two other SPECTRE veterans who know Wandoff have
told me: "The man is a fool."

Prior to the making the statement that is now on
the website, Wandoff had a different statement on Martinez's site in which he claimed
he was not even there, his crew was not there and he was not present during the rescue.
The FACT that SPECTRE 07 was on the scene immediately is well-documented and is
attested to by every person who had anything to do with the rescue effort. After
SPECTRE veterans complained to Ms. Martinez about Wandoff's loony claim that he was not
there, she modified the site with his current bogus statement.

Wandoff lives in North Carolina; Martinez
previously lived in Illinois. Eighteen months ago (early 2000) Martinez moved to
North Carolina after which Wandoff's statement was added to the web site. Coincidence?

Jerry Mooney's contributions to the myth: 5/13

Ms. Martinez's site quotes liberally from former USAF Master Sergeant
Jerry Mooney. Mooney was a member of the USAF Security
Service -- he was a traffic analyst, meaning that he read translations of intercepted
radio communications and analyzed the intercepts. Mooney has become quite a hero
among the MIA activist cult because of his claims that he analyzed intercepted
communications proving the US POWs were shipped off the the Soviet Union. Read this
article about another of Mooney's fiascoes .

Mooney was invited to testify before the Senate Select Committee on
POW-MIA Affairs. The activists could hardly wait for Mooney to blow the lid off the
cover up. He testified in open session and spent several hours being questioned by
SSC staff, many of whom had a backgrounds in intelligence. To be kind to
Mooney, this is what the SSC report said about him and his claims:

The Committee benefited from the insights of a
retired NSA SIGINT analyst, Senior Master Sergeant Jerry Mooney (USAF-retired). During the
war, SMSgt. Mooney maintained detailed personal files concerning losses of aircraft and
downed airmen. Unfortunately, those personal files did not become part of the archived
files maintained by the NSA and have been lost. Although SmSgt. Mooney has sought to
reconstruct some of that information from personal memory, the loss of the files makes it
impossible to check those recollections against the contemporaneous information.

The Committee found no evidence to substantiate claims that signals intelligence
gathered during the war constitute evidence that U.S. POWs were transferred to the Soviet
Union from Vietnam.

. . .

Under questioning by one Committee Member during the
January hearing, Mooney admitted that he never had "direct information" that
American POW's were taken to the Soviet Union. In response to another Committee member's
question, he said that he "saw no evidence that they [prisoners] went to the Soviet
Union." On several occasions during his testimony he said that he believed that
American prisoners had been taken there, but he was unable to provide any conclusive proof
to the Committee to support his judgment.

The SSC investigated Mooney's claims and concluded he had nothing to
offer.

Ms. Martinez's site quotes Mooney as claiming that there is, in
intercepted radio communications, a reference to "5/13"
indicating that of 13 crewmembers, 5 were captured. I don't know the answer to this
question, but, I will venture a suggestion.

The AC-130 gunships were used mainly to interdict traffic along the
"Ho Chi Minh Trail." The Trail was a network of footpaths and roads that
crossed into Laos from northern Vietnam, moved down the eastern edge of Laos, and crossed
in southern Vietnam, feeding men and material into the war in South Vietnam.
US aircraft operated over the eastern edge of Laos, attempting to shut down or slow down
the flow of men and supplies into South Vietnam.

The North Vietnamese army -- the People's Army of Vietnam -- PAVN --
managed the Trail with an organization designated Group 559 as the senior command
responsible for operating the Trail. Group 559 divided the trail into several
segments. Each segment was controlled by a military station, called in Vietnamese a "Binh
Tram." By the 1970s each binh tram controlled a segment approximately
50-80 kilometers long, so that a vehicle could traverse the distance in one night -
depending on weather, US air operations, etc.

The binh trams were numbered -- BT 6, BT 13, BT 5, etc. Group
559 went through a major reorganization in about March 1968. The reorganization led
to the creation of a few new Binh Trams, and the redesignation of all the existing Binh
Trams. All of the Binh Trams in the corridor through the eastern edge of Laos were
redesignated 3X (BT 2 became BT 32, BT 3 became BT 33, BT 5 became BT 35, etc.). All
Binh Trams at the border crossings between NVN and Laos received designations in the teens
(BTs 12, 14, 19). The one exception was BT27, which was located near a border
crossing just west of the western end of the DMZ. All Binh Trams at the border
crossings between Laos and SVN received designations in the 40s (BT 41, BT 42, etc.).
All Binh Trams in Cambodia received designations in the 50s.

Each binh tram, in turn, controlled several commo-liaison
stations - each located about a one night foot march from the other. Thus,
binh tram 13 would have subordinate commo-liaison stations 1, 2, 3, etc. In
communications, these commo-liaison stations would be identified by their designation and
the designation of their parent binh tram. I believe this is the origin of Mooney's
claims regarding "5/13" -- either or both the commo liaison station and the binh
tram would have reported on the downing of the US aircraft -- and they would have signed
the message with an identifier -- 5/13 or 13/5. Further, other binh trams may
have reported on the downing of SPECTRE 17 or may have relayed messages regarding the
shootdown. Thus, the "5/13" notation appears to be nothing more than
a message routing number or identifier. ( Besides, there were not 13 people
lost on SPECTRE 17 -- there were 16 on board, two rescued, leaving 14 who went in with the
aircraft. )

The George MacDonald caper

Ms. Martinez's site is a tribute to USAF Captain George MacDonald, a
crewmember on SPECTRE 17. MacDonald perished in the crash of SPECTRE 17.
MacDonald's mother was the subject of a cruel hoax in the 1970s, involving
MacDonald's mother, two shady characters claiming to be Russian intelligence agents, and
an American holy-roller preacher.

Reverend Lindstrom

One of the earliest "activists" to emerge on the MIA scene was
one Reverend Paul Lindstrom from the Chicago area. He had previously been active in
a group called "Remember the Pueblo Committee" that aimed to gain the release of
the Pueblo crew from North Korea. Later, Lindstrom solicited money for his
"Douglas MacArthur Brigade" -- which he claimed was made up of former Marines
and mercenaries who were going to Laos to rescue US POWs.

In the fall of 1974, Lindstrom approached MacDonald's mother, claiming
that he could arrange a meeting between her and two "intermediaries" who could
free her son. She traveled to Mexico City where she met with two men who showed her
a grainy photo that they claimed was her son. They demanded payments ranging from
$25,000 to $500,000 to free him. Mrs. MacDonald -- a widow -- had no way to raise
that kind of money and she asked for more proof -- a letter in her son's handwriting or
fingerprints. The "intermediaries" responded that they needed cash up
front.

Mrs. MacDonald paid nothing and heard no more from these scam
artists.

Reverend Lindstrom is still around the Chicago area where he now runs a "home schooling"
assistance scam and supports various fringe causes.

The Lindstrom-MacDonald caper is often used by the "activist"
cult as proof that MacDonald survived the crash, was captured, and was taken to the Soviet
Union -- or somewhere. Nonsense. The caper was nothing but a fraud perpetrated
by Lindstrom who needs to have the living shit kicked out of him.

(UPDATE: 8 June 2002.
Reverend Lindstrom died at his home in the Chicago suburbs on 22 May 2002;
his funeral was on 2 June. Perhaps the good reverend will now get what he deserves
-- a quiet seat close to the fire.)